Does Empowerment Lead to a Win-Win Situation for Both Employers and Workers - Coursework Example

Empowerment Name and ID Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name 18 December 2009 The aim of many organisations is to ensure that they create value for their consumers and stakeholders. To achieve this obligation, it is important to maximise available resources that includes human resource. Employees are the most important asset in any organisation and thus their welfare should be taken into consideration ensuring that their contribution can be maximised and for them to operate in an environment that they can control. This calls upon empowerment that refers to an increase in the political, social, spiritual and economic strengths of the employees or other individuals. Grove (1971) defines empowerment has to give official authority or to delegate official power to authorise and commission. Gandz (1990) who states that empowerment is a managerial approach that vests approval authority or decision making in employees, a role that traditionally was a managerial prerogative, shares these sentiments. On the other hand, employee empowerment is a philosophy and strategy that provides an opportunity to the employees to make decisions about their jobs. This means that employee empowerment is providing employees with capacity to be responsible for their job and results. Generally, employee empowerment means the process whereby information is shared, developing culture empowerment, development of competency, availability of appropriate resources, and appropriate support is provided. Culture of an organisation is an important virtue or restraint in empowerment (Oakland 2003). Organisation’s culture is usually something that is complex and it is not easy to describe. Even though understanding culture is hard, organisation that successfully champions employee empowerment has specific values at their core in which the empowerment process can flow. Some of the organisation culture that plays a major role includes appreciation and respect for individuals, and the value that these individuals bring into the organisation. Even though these are just components of values, important is that organisation should support the thrust of empowerment if there is any chance for success. Empowered employees have a sense of meaning, self-determination, competence and impact. These values usually compel and propel behaviour towards the requirements of the organisation. Job context and content are important in specifically stating the goals, mission and objectives of the organisation. Those organisations that appreciate the culture of empowerment usually succeed in most of their aims because the employees clearly will state the appropriate steps and means that should be followed, and these strategies should be appreciated by leaders. Leaders and managers should create cultures and these cultures will create next generation of leaders (Schein 1985), and hence the culture of change will effectively be factored in organisation operations. For example, many organisation and institutions resist change, an aspect that can easily be addressed by embracing employee empowerment. Employees and employers cultivating empowerment culture will result in evolving of the organisation rather than transformation. In this case, organisational culture will be affected positively through introduction of employee empowerment because clear definition of job context and content will propel organisation objectives and goals. Supervisors and managers share power and authority appropriately in those organisations that are empowered. To accomplish the task of sharing power and authority either actively or passively, through abdication or delegation, in which neither is employee empowerment is inappropriate approach; managers are supposed to understand means of ensuring employees are involved in managing the organisation. It is paramount to ensure that delegation or abdication of duties is based on the capabilities and capacity of the employees. Managers and supervisors are supposed to empower employees through coaching and showing them the appropriate method to accomplish certain duties. Some coaching strategies that can be used include setting inspirational goals, providing autonomy, fostering opportunities such as decision-making and expressing confidence in subordinates. This approach will develop the employees and be aware of the aims of organisation while at the same time decrease responsibility of guiding the employees by the employers. The employers’ managerial tasks will be decreased while the employee will have confidence, and hence the organisation will achieve its goals; this means that it is a win-win situation for the employee and employer. Moreover, managers championing empowerment cultivates employees use of intrinsic factors rather than extrinsic factors; intrinsic factors are internally produced to compel accomplishment of a given duty. Additionally, managers utilise data and information in accomplishment of their duties and in most instance, this information is not available to other employees. Organisational culture is made of information and information itself is the gatekeeper to power. It is paramount to share information more freely. It is attributed that people without information cannot be responsible and if information is not shared, there will be no redistribution and empowerment will not be in place. In any organisation, information and communication are the foundations of success and translates in empowerment. Exchange of information increases job satisfaction that translates in success of the organisation. The organisation management should update the employees through investing in new skills training, about the business, setting goals for employees and frequent feedbacks towards meeting their goals. Combining creative autonomy boundaries with free flow of information provide an opportunity to take action within the boundaries and perhaps improve its effectiveness (Brown & Harvey 1999). Nevertheless, before allowing employees to access information, it is important that they understand the importance of disciple and control. Understanding this will provide an opportunity for the organisation to preserve secrecy of confidential information and to prevent the information from negative manipulation. Additionally, those employees who can access recent information on goals have means and can easily define setting of challenging goals. Availability of free flowing information will ensure that the employees can gauge their contributions and understand areas that require improvements. This situation will be win-win because the employees will set their own challenging goals that will be beneficial to the employer. Information availability provides means of gauging accomplishments and defines future strategies. In addition, it is important to provide a compelling vision of empowerment in the workplace since it is a major factor that contributes towards the success of the organisation. In many organisations, empowerment is poorly understood, and in most cases has not been experienced by the employees, this means that it is the vision that makes commitment possible. Vision is usually the most evident attribute of organisational culture, and it is through the vision that leaders and managers can inspire employees to apply their knowledge, creativity, and skills towards its achievement. Vision allows employees to be aware of the context, and this can inspire creativity (Bowen and Lawler, 1995). This means that those employers who have been empowered appreciate importance of vision and this vision drives the organisation to success. Empowerment brings into consideration competency. Competent employees go beyond the fundamentals of job-task specific knowledge to ensure that the organisation is productive. Thus, training provides an opportunity for the employees to familiarise with how their jobs fit into downstream and upstream activities. Maximisation of empowerment and aiming to achieve productive results, it is paramount to provide for technical and job skills/training, problem solving and interpersonal skills/training, support group trainings and service skills/training. Thus, empowered employee possessing competency usually contributes positively towards the success of the organisation. Providing empowerment training prepares people for higher-level performance and collaboration, sends positive signals to the employees; we are investing on you and it is paramount for the future of the organisation. Generally, competence improves on understanding requirements of the organisation and provides means of developing the appropriate framework that can be used in future development of organisation (Imai 1997). Resource allocation is crucial to success of empowerment but usually controlled by supervisory staff. To create a win-win situation, it is important to transfer resources from the supervisors to the employees so that the employees can control these resources in accomplishment of organisational tasks. In this case, resource may include access to support staff, funding and/or experts; most manager’s think that employee waste resources, but this perception is attributed to insufficient flow of information between the employer and employees. However, empowered workers appreciate the importance of available resources and tend to maximise its benefits by clearly defining the aims and goals of using a given resource. The employers put in place resources (invest huge amounts of money on resource), and if this resources are partially used, the employer will not get value for their investment, but factoring into the equation the empowered employees, the value for resources will be achieved. Thus, the resources will be beneficial to the employees and at the same time yields value for the employers, and hence a win-win situation (Lashley 2001). Support is also an important issue that maximises the benefits of empowerment. Support may take different forms one of which is workplace social support. When employees are supported especially emotionally for the subordinates, it creates an environment of trusting and supportive atmosphere, and thus leads in strengthening self-efficacy beliefs. Task assessment, another approach of supportive, improves the perception of the employee and may make employees maximise their abilities, introducing motivation; these are the basics for intrinsic motivation. This means that good support system will help the employees develop intrinsic motivation resulting in a sense of self-efficacy will increase, and thus duties and activities will be completed effectively and efficiently. Ginnodo (1997) view that support can take the form of recognition and rewarding employee that result in improvement of efforts contributing towards success. For example, congratulations are affirmations that an employee is in the right path. A motivated employee is a great asset to an organisation and when the organisation is productive the employer will also benefit, thus it is a win-win situation. Generally, employee empowerment is beneficial to both the employee and the employer. Empowerment provides an opportunity to the employee to express their views and maximise their abilities. Empowered employees have a lot of freedom in which they can use to make appropriate (at times bad) decisions (Potterfield 1999). Those decisions are based on experience of the employee and especially when the employee is on the ground; for example, due to globalisation, an organisation has started business or branch in another country. Thus, the employee on the ground (this new country) will understand better environmental conditions and hence effective decisions. This means that the employer will benefit because of diversified views and views that bring into consideration the actual views of employees. This is different from those employees whore underpowered. Nevertheless, employee empowerment is associated with numerous influences (Shipper & Manz, 1992). Benefits of Employee Empowerment Generally, those organisations that implement effectively employee empowerment are usually beneficial. Organisations are based on the assumption of organise, thus the most appropriate strategy to organise employees is through empowering, and this can be achieved through employee empowerment. Thus, employee empowerment ensures that maximisation of employee knowledge is achieved, encourages employees to factor greater sense of self-motivation and professionalism and the employee will feel committed to the organisation’s success (Brown & Harvey 1999). Empowerment is beneficial to an organisation especially attributed to the efficacy of employee empowerment. The power of an organisation can grow; because in part, by being shared, and by empowering others, a leader does not decrease his/her power but instead, likely to increase it if the organisation is performing better (Kanter 1979). Kanter (1979) employs the logic that productive capacity of nations develops if the skill based is improved, a scenario that applies to organisations. Thus, employees with information, tool, and support are able to make more informed decisions and act effectively usually accomplish more. Empowerment usually is attributed to more satisfied employees and customers. Moreover, empowerment especially through work teams, gain sharing, skill-based pay, communication programs, and job enrichment shows that the results of these approaches are consistent and positive towards success of an organisation (Bowen & Lawler 1995). Additionally, empowerment improves quality of work life and work satisfaction while the companies will likely report on improved competitiveness and profitability. Trust is an important virtue associated with employee empowerment. This means that when an employee trust that the organisation is not out to suck their benefits or blood, and the organisation is providing a competitive service and produce, the employees will respond positively. Hence, employees who have current performance levels information may likely set challenging goals and this chain will continue thus profiting the organisation (Pride & hughes, 2009). Globalisation has resulted in maximisation of minimal resources that are available to ensure that organisations are productive; this makes organisations to understand the benefits of employees. Thus, an empowered organisation will look for suggestions to expand into internal markets through incorporating suggestions of employees. Problems of empowerment Numerous shortcomings are associated with employee empowerment. Usually, management fears that giving the chance to employees to make decisions may negate profitability of the organisation, and this associated with ineffectiveness of empowerment programs. Kanter (1979) asserts that many organisations do not adopt such empowering strategies because the managers fear that they can lose their own place/position, special privileges that are associated with the system and they fear giving up power or control. The major concern of empowerment is taking power off the middle managers. Blanchard & Bowles (1998) state that empowerment makes managers to give up the levers of control that they have worked for, for many years. This means that many fraternal organisations and its current members want to keep the tradition of do onto others as was done onto them. For example, the managers may want employees to run errands, an aspect that they were done by superior managers. This is a major shortcoming of empowerment from the view of traditional managers. Another negative view of empowerment has presented by Conger & Kanungo (1988) is that it might lead to overconfidence and result in misjudgements. This is a major concern for many organisations that wants to empower their employees. Providing a chance to employees to make decisions may result in bad decisions based on insufficient information or experience resulting in loss of revenues or consequences that works against the organisation. Empowerment brings into consideration seniority versus flexibility. For example, employees of different seniority can form a team; the team members have been trained effectively and are capable of making appropriate and good decisions. However, the team members may have different views or approaches towards accomplishment of the tasks. Thus, the big question is, whose decision will be implemented, a minor employee or a senior employee, and hence basis for confrontation. Even if communication and collaboration is efficient, the seniors will tend to require that their decisions and views be followed. Nevertheless, not only the managers are against empowerment, but also employees see that empowerment increases difficulties in their work. For example, Aeppel (1997) state that responsibility that employees have for each other is likes having numerous bosses watching one employee; this is because employees will be watching each other. Moreover, employees see empowerment as extra responsibility, most employees do not want extra work, and thus empowerment is a disadvantage to some employees. Conger & Kanungo (1988) asserts that "major organizational changes…seriously challenge employees' sense of control and competence as they deal with the uncertainty of change and accept new responsibilities, skills, and guidelines for action and behavior" (p. 477). Generally, empowerment is an important aspect in developing a scenario of win-win between the employee and employer. Empowerment is defined as a situation in which enlightened employees can operate in an environment that has no restrictions. Employee empowerment impact the organisation in different ways; however, the fundamental thing is to ensure employees are effectively trained to understand their responsibilities. Information sharing a constituent of empowerment creates an environment in which information can be exchanged easily and thus the employees will utilise these information in making appropriate decisions. Managers’ success is dependent on empowerment of employees. Empowered employees understand the vision and values of an organisation. This means that employees who understand what is required from them will likely maximise their abilities in achieving their aims or goals (Potterfield 1999). Numerous benefits and shortcomings are associated with empowerment. For example, empowered employees will improve the values of the organisation by making sound decisions. Environment that will be created will be conducive for success, and freedom that employees enjoy will motivate them resulting in increase in organisation requirement success. Empowered employees also will improve on employee efficacy translating to the success of the organisation. Nevertheless, numerous shortcomings are associated with empowered employees. A major concern of employee empowerment is that they will be overconfident, and this may result in bad decisions. Moreover, conflicts will increase because of organisation seniority and taking of ones responsibility. For example, managers are supposed to make decisions, however empowered employees will start making the decision resulting in conflicts. Reference Aeppel, T. 1997.  Missing the boss:  Not all workers find idea of  empowerment as neat as it sounds.  The Wall Street Journal, pp. 1, 10. Blanchard, K. & Bowles, S. 1998.  Gung Ho!  Turn on the people in any  organization.  New York:  William Morrow. Brown, D. & Harvey, D. 1999. An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. New York: Pearson Education. Bowen, D.E. & Lawler, E.E. 1995.  Empowering service employees.  Sloan  Management Review, Summer 1995, p.73. Conger, J.A. & Kanungo, R.N. 1988.  The empowerment process:  Integrating  theory and practice.  Academy of Management Review, 13-3, p. 471. Gandz, J. 1990.  The employee empowerment era.  Business Quarterly, 55-2, p. 74. Ginnodo, B. (ed.), 1997.  The Power of Empowerment:  What the experts say  and 16 actionable case studies.  Arlington Heights, IL:  Pride. Grove, P.B. (ed.), 1971.  Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the  English Language Unabridged. Springfield, MA:  G&C Merriam. Imai, M. 1997. Gemba kaizen: a commonsense low cost approach to management. London: McGraw-Hill Professional. Kanter, R.M. 1979.  Power failure in management circuits.  Harvard Business  Review, 57-4, p. 65. Lashley, C. 2001. Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence, 2nd Ed. London: Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers. Oakland, J. 2003. Total quality management: text with cases, 3rd Ed. London: Butterworth-Heinemann Pride, W. & hughes, R. 2009. Business. London: Cengage Learning. Potterfield, T. 1999. The business of employee empowerment: democracy and ideology in the workplace. London: Greenwood Publishing Group. Schein, E.H. 1985.  Organizational Culture and Leadership.  San Francisco:   Jossey-Bass. Shipper, F. & Manz, C.C. 1992.  Employee self-management without formally  designated teams:  An alternative road to empowerment.  Organizational  Dynamics, 21-3, p. 48. Read More